FördeWerkStadt

The design of a new neighbourhood on the fjord is characterised by a humanistic approach: enabling sustainable living through urban planning and architecture. Here and now, Kiel has a great opportunity to design an example for the European city of the future in the post-growth phase at this special place. How do we want to live, live and work in the future? A vision with mobility of short distances in everyday life and leisure, healthy living, sustainable building and good social coexistence. This creates space for sustainable innovation by exploiting already existing resources.

Today, Holtenau East is an abandoned place that derives its charm and atmosphere from its use over the last 100 years, from nature, which is reappropriating the traces of use, and from its proximity to the water.
Tomorrow, the atmosphere can also be shaped by the coexistence of the new residents and the workplaces, thereby also generating attractiveness for the whole of Kiel and the surrounding area. The city is more than the sum of its houses: with this in mind, let us take care of this special place. The FördeWerkStadt gets its attractiveness from the interpretation of the space between the houses and nature. This is not clearly defined as in the mature Central European city, but is permeable and open for the appropriation of the users and can develop with changing use. The principle is applied both between the buildings and in the natural space of the forest.

Strategy
The city of tomorrow respects what is already there and builds on the existing buildings and nature. The already sealed and non-natural open spaces are particularly suitable for development. The new development always establishes a relationship between the natural edge of the slope and the fjord and leaves open references via the space in between. This creates a striking silhouette in the area and also from the fjord. The mix of uses gives the spaces in between a different character, and the resulting diversity strengthens the attractiveness of the new quarter. The spaces are designed to be universal – too much specialisation and differentiation between different categories of space would limit the diversity of uses.

Network of paths
This is what we are working on: an eventful promenade along the water, a superordinate cycle path connection, a low-car development in the neighbourhood that relies on public transport, a careful development of the natural space and, above all, a conscious set of rules for the spaces in between. The paths serve to connect the intermediate spaces on a small scale. The parking space for a low-car neighbourhood is arranged at the edges in four multi-storey car parks with a radius of approx. 250 m. The ground floor of these car parks is used for commercial purposes. These are occupied on the ground floor with uses that connect to the attractive open space. The non-hierarchical system of paths resembles the network of a mycelium. This creates the image of a social space that is shared by all, similar to the commons, and allows direct access to the elements of water and nature. We understand the meshwork in connection with the urban design as a medium for reflection on the future of the city and the community from the different perspectives of socio-cultural, economic, spatial planning and aesthetics. Here, as an image of the neighbourhood, we would like to put living, working, leisure, supply and above all education and integration into a mesh-like relationship and, with a set of rules, stimulate a permanent discussion and negotiation among the users. The physical concept of the commons has recently also been applied to intellectual property and to the sharing of knowledge. In this way, we see the area of the commons very much in the spirit of Kiel’s tradition of higher education and education in the age of digitalisation. The Wege mycelium in the context of the commons is to be understood figuratively as a network of people and a common discourse in which everyone can contribute their expertise or gain expertise in everyday life.

Energy, social issues and building
Energy is generated locally via wind and sun on the buildings. Thus, all roofs are oriented either towards energy production or the cultivation of food. Social energy takes place on the ground floor and in the public space: Emphasis is placed on a deliberate interplay between the ground floor and the adjacent urban spaces in each building. In the construction and operation of the subsequent buildings, circular economy construction is the basis of the design and construction. Cradle to Cradle leads to the appreciation of the existing building stock, the use of low-energy building materials and detachable connections. Furthermore, the existing bunkers are equipped with redox batteries. In this way, the energy produced in the neighbourhood can be temporarily stored and made usable with a time delay. Landscape planning measures such as the planting of short-rotation plantations with a connected energy centre in the area also promote a neighbourhood-internal energy supply. The planned future, innovative concepts in this area will be researched at the planned forest laboratory. The development and implementation of new technologies in the energy industry and construction industry could be a theme of the commercial area to support the energy turnaround and the building turnaround. Developing a new aesthetic of architecture and space and giving the neighbourhood an identity through this is our vision of a sustainable beauty in which people develop. This is how appreciation for the environment manifests itself, in which lasting and thus sustainable architecture is created.